J.B. Spins

Jazz, film, and improvised culture.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

The Terror Live: The Scoop that Kills

Yoon
Young-hwa is sort of like the Korean Dan Rather. The disgraced former television anchor has
been demoted to a lowly radio call-in host.
However, when a domestic terrorist calls into his show, the “journalist”
tries to leverage his scoop into a career comeback. Alas, nothing goes according to plan in Kim
Byung-woo’s The Terror Live (trailer here), now playing in
New York.

At
first, Yoon assumes the caller is pesky crank, but for some reason his producer
is unable to dump his call. When the mystery
man threatens to blow-up the nearby bridge, Yoon dares him to follow through—and
he does. Capitalizing on his direct line
to the terrorist, Yoon negotiates a return to the anchor’s chair with the
sleazy SNC news director. However, he
quickly realizes he is playing a far more dangerous game than he realized.

For
starters, there is the explosive device the mad bomber somehow slipped into his
earpiece. While the initial explosions
scrupulously avoided human casualty, the second round left an isolated section
of the bridge precariously listing on its caisson. Amongst the bystanders trapped there is Yoon’s
ex-wife, Lee Ji-soo, a fellow reporter.
Yoon finds himself caught between the news director, who orders Yoon to
provoke a spectacularly tragic finish and Park Jung-min, the national security
official imploring him to stall for time.

It
is hard to judge from Terror Live whether
Koreans have more contempt for journalists or politicians. Probably the former, but it is a close call. Neither displays much integrity throughout
the film, but Yoon will find himself on the business end of some cosmic
comeuppance as a result of his past sins.

Korean
mega-star Ha Jung-woo (who was all kinds of bad in The Berlin Fileand Nameless Gangster) once again is quite the intense anti-hero as the existentially
torn Yoon. He largely carries the
confined space-pressure cooker film singlehandedly. Unfortunately, only Jeon Hye-jin provides him
any measurable support as the tough but seemingly decent Park. In contrast, Lee Kyoung-young is eye-roll
worthy as the ridiculously oily news boss.
Still, he makes more of an impression than the rest of the blandly anonymous
cast.

To
an extent, you have to give Kim credit for not backing down. He steadily raises the stakes and never shies
away from the enormity of the terrorist attacks. Frankly, the sight of bomb damaged buildings slowly
teetering over might be too much for New Yorkers with particularly vivid
memories of September 11th. Many
more viewers will also find Kim’s third act nihilism—unsubtly implying a
bombing spree is not such an unreasonable response to political opportunism—rather
problematic as well.

Clearly, Kim understands how to stage a
hold-the-line thriller. His execution is
strong, but his ethical implications and character motivations are
questionable. TV journalists might be
pond scum, but the SNC network big wigs often just seem perversely
villainous. A frustrating example of a
potentially taut terrorism drama that implodes on itself, The Terror Live is now showing in New York at the AMC Empire.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Wing Chun at BAM: Enter the Dragon

It
is the first true martial arts film selected for the Library of Congress’s
National Film Registry. Bruce Lee’s
first Hollywood star vehicle and his final fully completed film represents kung
fu cinema at its most cross-overiest, yet it is still legit to the bone. In honor of Ip Man and Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, Bruce Lee & director Robert Clouse’s Enter the Dragon (trailer here), begins a week
of restored DCP screenings today, as part of BAM Cinematek’s WingChunclassic film series.

Lee’s
namesake is a Hong Kong Shaolin standard bearer knocking on the door of
complete martial arts enlightenment.
While glory in the ring hardly interests him, he agrees to compete in
the triannual martial arts tournament sponsored by Han, an international vice
lord and general megalomaniac. Sent in
by British Intelligence sans back-up, Lee is to reconnoiter around Han’s
pleasure palace and hopefully fight his way out of any trouble he might
encounter. It is not much of a plan, but
it will suffice.

The
stakes turn out to be unexpectedly personal for Lee. Shortly before embarking, he learns Han’s
thugs were responsible for the death of his sister, Su Lin. As one might expect of Lee’s kin, she put up a
heck of a fight. Han’s chief enforcer O’Hara
still bears his scars from the encounter.
He is due for some more pain. However, Lee will meet some friendly
Americans en route, such as the well heeled Roper, who is looking to hustle
some action to pay off his gambling debts, like a kung fu Fast Eddie Felson. In
contrast, Roper’s former Army buddy Williams seems more interested in
hedonistic pleasures supplied nightly to the fighters.

Enter might not sound
earthshakingly original, but that is partly a function of how widely imitated
it has been, especially the iconic hall of mirrors climax. Scores of movies have copied its general
template of the ostensibly upright kumite going on above ground, while armies
of henchmen in color-coded gis labor towards nefarious ends below. Without it, there is no way we would have
guilty pleasures like the Steve Chase beatdown, Kill and Kill Again, which is a thoroughly depressing thought to
contemplate.

All
the elements come together, but there is still no question this is Lee’s
show. Almost supernaturally intense and
charismatic, Lee was clearly at the peak of his powers throughout Enter.
It is a massively physical performance (featuring some impressive
acrobatic feats), yet Lee still takes care to convey the philosophical side of
Wing Chun. The restored print includes
more scenes of Lee as a spiritual teacher that work quite well.

Even
with Lee’s overpowering presence, Enter is
the film that really put Jim “Black Belt Jones” Kelly on the map. As Williams,
he contributes attitude and energy that further distinguished Enter from its genre predecessors. In fact, the cast is loaded with notables,
including John Saxon, hamming it up with relish as Roper. Fans often wonder why so little was subsequently
heard of Betty Chung, but she has some nice rapport with Lee as Mei Ling, a
fellow undercover operative.

There
are also plenty of established and future action stars, most notably Angela Mao
absolutely crushing Su Lin’s brief but pivotal flashback scene. Bolo Yeung also appears in exactly the sort
of role that would make him famous.
Sammo Hung has a briefer turn as a Shaolin martial artist who fairs
poorly against Lee—but not as nearly as badly as blink-and-you-missed-him Jackie
Chan, whose meat-for-the-grinder henchman gets his neck snapped by our hero.

But wait there’s more, including a classic funky
eastern fusion soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin that opened up a lot of ears up to
the Argentinean composer and former Dizzy Gillespie sideman. Without question, this is a historically and
culturally significant film, well worthy of being selected for the National Film
Registry. Logically, it anchors BAM’s
Wing Chun series in honor of Lee’s revered master, Ip Man. Highly recommended beyond martial arts
enthusiasts, Enter the Dragon begins
a week long run (8/30-9/5) today at the BAM Rose Cinemas.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

I Declare War: Kids Get Their War On

War—what is it good for? At least it gets these brats out of the
house. That will be a blessing for their
parents. Unfortunately, the youngsters
will have to endure the ridiculously simplistic tactics of allegorical cinema
in Jason Lapeyre & Robert Wilson’s I
Declare War (trailer
here), which
opens tomorrow at the Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers.

Completely free of adult supervision, a
group of kids play regular capture the flag war games in the forest near their
exurban homes. PK is a young war movie
junkie who has always commanded his troops to victory. He finally thinks he has met a worthy
opponent in Quinn, who clearly shares PK’s understanding of military strategy,
until the promising general is fragged by his own troops. Having captured PK’s best friend Kwon, the
resentful Skinner was not about to squander an opportunity for some
score-settling.

Initially, we see the kids trudging
about with crude makeshift stick-and-twine guns, but soon they are replaced with
very real looking assault weaponry. They
sound like the real deal too, but no actual blood is shed during their
skirmishes, aside from their grenades (balloons filled with red paint). However, there is nothing imaginary about the
pain Skinner inflicts on Kwon.

Yes, it is jarring to watch young kids
toting assault rifles and blasting away at each other, allowing fantasies to
intrude on ostensive reality, but after half an hour or so, we just so get the
point already. Frustratingly, the film
does not really have anything left in reserve after these initial shocks. Arguably, it might have been a more engaging
film if Lapeyre and Wilson had embraced the story of a truly epic capture the
flag contest rather than tried to remake Lord
of the Flies again.

To their credit, Declare’s young ensemble is completely credible and fully committed
to their roles. On the downside, their
characters are never very well fleshed out.
Basically, we have PK, the slight of stature general with a Napoleon complex,
Kwon, the loyal best friend, their resentful loser nemesis, as well as the scheming
chick, the annoying kid, the other annoying kid, and the other other annoying
kid.

Declare
is a compelling example of detailed world
building at the child’s eye level. It sort
of resembles what it might look like if Full
Metal Jacket broke out in the middle of Moonrise Kingdom. Despite the strength of its
ground game, the film is still saddled by the clunkiness of its teaching
moments and the blandness of most of its characters. For those intrigued by the provocative
imagery, I Declare War opens tomorrow
(8/30) at select Alamo Drafthouses nationwide, including Yonkers in New York
and Littleton in Colorado.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Tokyo Waka: Crows and the Great Cycle of Life

They
love their kaiju monster movies in Japan.
Perhaps that has prepared Tokyo to live with the aggressive,
non-indigenous Jungle Crows that have made themselves at home there amongst the
tall buildings in recent years. Japan’s
Buddhist and Shinto traditions also help residents find a balance with their
winged neighbors. The mega-city’s people
and crows inspire John Haptas & Kristine Samuelson’s docu-essay Tokyo Waka (trailer here), which opens
today at New York’s Film Forum.

Crows
have long played a role in Japanese culture.
Evidently, loud speakers still broadcast a time-honored tune at 5:00,
warning children at play it is time to go home with the crows. A recurring figure in art and legend, a crow
is even the mascot of the national football (soccer) team. However, these transplants are a crow of a
different order. Known to whisk away
small mammals, they have forced Tokyo zookeepers to erect protective barriers
for their prairie dogs (seriously). They
have even been known to take a peck at humans whom they don’t like the looks
of.

Although
Waka is generally meditative in tone,
some of the crow footage is kind of creepy.
Haptas and Samuelson speak to residents of all walks of life, who are
forced to interact with the black birds.
Not surprisingly, some of the most insightful comments come from a
Buddhist priest, whose temple goldfish fell victim to one of the brazen
crows. He never begrudges them for
following their nature. After all, it is
all part of the great cycle of life.

We
also hear from zoologists, city bureaucrats charged with crow population
control, and students who have survived crow attacks. Together they piece together a mosaic of
Tokyo. Even with the risk of angry
crows, it is an attractively cinematic picture (lovely shot by Haptas and
Samuelson), incorporating Shinto shrines and the giant commercial neon
signs. The homeless woman representing
tent dwellers in the park is a good case in point. While surely there are unfortunate economic
reasons for her situation, she seems to have partly embraced the Bohemian
aspects of it. Indeed, making the most
of a difficult situation is arguably quite compatible with Buddhist and
Japanese values.

Quiet and thoughtful, Tokyo Waka is still rather peppier than one might expect.
Co-directors-producers-cinematographers-editors Haptas and Samuelson
capture some striking images of the city and its crows. Stylistically, it is not unlike Jessica
Oreck’s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,
though it does not have quite the same charm.
Running just a tad over an hour, it is certainly easy to digest. Recommended for students of Japanese culture
and bird watchers, Tokyo Waka opens
today (8/28) at Film Forum, programmed with the bonus short film, Catcam.

Our Nixon: We’ll Always Have Him to Kick Around

These
days, when the NSA knows what’s on your Netflix queue and the IRS might audit
you if you have too many John Wayne movies on it, one cannot help feeling
nostalgia for the Nixon years. Indeed,
it was a more innocent era, when the government was secretly taping
itself. As if there were not enough
tapes already, it turns out three of Nixon’s top aides also happened to be keen
amateur super8 videographers, who constantly documented the history unfolding
around them. The not very widely seen
home movies of H.R. Haldeman, John Erhlichman, and Dwight Chapin are blended
together with generous helpings of news footage and other kinds of tapes in
Penny Lane’s docu-collage Our Nixon (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.

It
is hard to get a handle on just what exactly Our Nixon is, starting with whether it is a feature film or a
television special. One of the first
releases from CNN’s new theatrical arm, it has already aired on the second
place cable news network. Some have also
taken issue with its subversive (some might say deceptive) editing style, in which
the ellipses between events portrayed on screen are glossed over. Strict historical chronology takes a backseat
to sly, ironic humor. That would be
fine, provided the labeling was a bit more accurate and up-front.

Be
that as it may, there are telling moments in Our Nixon, but rarely with respects to its ostensible subject. Frankly, the film ought to be called Our Haldeman, Erlichman, and Chapin. On good terms up until the bitter end, the
three top aides apparently filmed each other as much as R.N., if not more so. Haldeman in particular emerges as a rather
decent sort, caught up in a whirlwind not of his own making.

With
regards to the big question, Lane’s samplings essentially exonerate Nixon of
any premeditated complicity in the original break-in. Ironically, it was pretty clearly his
compulsive need to micromanage the response (cover-up) that brought him
down. Still, Penny Lane (cue trumpet
solo) did not set out to do any favors for Nixon’s image, choosing clips that
accentuate his insecurities and craven craving for approval. Poor Haldeman often sounds like Nixon’s
shrink.

Our
Nixon offers some decent
material on the Nixon’s visit to China, but there is nothing particularly
invaluable or newsworthy here. The film
has no surprising revelations, no smoking guns, and no secret Salinger novels,
just some jokes regarding everyone’s squareness. Almost as much a work of cultural history as
political history, it is interesting to parse the film’s time capsule
images. Still, there is no escaping the slightness
of the film (regardless of its authority or lack thereof). Arguably, Our
Nixon really is better suited for television viewing. Nonetheless, it opens theatrically this
Friday (8/30) in New York at the IFC Center, largely for Watergate junkies who
missed it on CNN.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A Company Man: Lifetime Employment

Contract
killing is one of the few recession-proof industries. Given the illusive nature of our economic
recovery, it probably won’t be long before the administration starts doing
photo ops with the Assassination Bureau.
At least, murder-for-hire is still illegal in Korea, but it is a tough
racket to quit. On the plus side, there
will be a whole lot of openings at Ji Hyeong-do’s firm by the time he finishes
resigning in Lim Sang-yun’s A Company Man(trailer
here), which
releases on digital, DVD, and BluRay today, from Well Go USA.

Ji
is on the fast track. His people skills
are not great, but he has other talents the firm’s president values highly. His upward career trajectory will hit a few
speed bumps when two rather messy assignments start gnawing at his
conscience. First, Ji must dispose of Ra-hun,
a young “temp” who thought he was in the management trainee program, after the
kid caps a sensitive target. To make
matters worse, Ra-hun’s struggling single mother happens to be Yoo Mi-yeon, the
one-hit wonder teen idol Ji always had warm fuzzy feelings for.

As
Ji starts looking after Yoo and her teen-aged daughter, the president tasks him
with “taking care” of Jin Chae-hook, his former superior who has gone AWOL
after the accidental death of his son.
Suddenly, Jin has a lot to say to Ji, which he does not want to hear,
even though he more or less knows it all already. Wanting to start a new life with Yoo, Ji
decides to resign from the firm. Right,
good luck with that.

Yes,
the corporate hitman-gangster thing has become a pretty shopworn movie cliché in
the post-Sopranos era. Lim adds little insight into either the world
of the salaryman or the contract killer.
However, he racks up quite an impressive body count. While the middle gets a little draggy as Ji slowly
starts putting the moves on Yoo, the set-up is smooth and grabby and the third
act delivers in spades. Company was a monster hit at the Korean
boxoffice, so you know you can take happily-ever-after off the table. Popular Korean audiences just seem to dig a
bit of tragedy. Nevertheless, the big climax
well exceeds viewer expectations with a massive dose of violent action. It is not exactly John Woo’s Hard-Boiled, but it provides a good,
stiff fix for genre fans.

As
Ji, Rough Cut star So Ji-sub moves
like a shark through his action scenes and broods like he really means
business. Lee Mi-yeon nicely
counterbalances the regiment of jaded sociopaths as the effervescent, but not overly
perky Yoo. Amid all the dark suits, Kwak
Do-won also makes an effectively loathsome villain as the firm’s petty
micromanaging second in command.

Viewers in a hurry can probably get away with
watching the first ten minutes of Company
and then fast forwarding to the last half hour. Indeed, when Lim fully unleashes the mayhem
it is kind of awesome. A safe bet recommendation
for action fans, A Company Man is now
available for home viewing options from Well Go USA.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Abigail Harm: A Shy, Quiet Brand of Urban Fantasy

Visitors
come to New York from nearly everywhere, perhaps even including the fairy
realm, or some such place. One mousy New
Yorker will open her home and perhaps her heart to a decidedly foreign visitor
when the Korean fable of the Woodcutter and the Nymph (that shares common
elements with the Swan Maiden and Selkie myths) get a quietly modern makeover
in Lee Isaac Chung’s Abigail Harm (trailer here), opening this
Friday in New York.

Shy
and retiring, Abigail Harm reads to the blind because she does not like to be seen. Her garrulous father was also a storyteller,
but her relationship to the old man was complicated in ways we will never
understand. One fateful night, she
shelters a strange fugitive, who seems to believe he is a mystical being
trapped in our world because someone stole his robe. To thank Harm, he gives her directions on
where to similarly entrap one of his fellow visitors, who will become her
faithful lover as long as she keeps his stolen garment in her possession.

While
Harm is ordinarily quite taciturn, she is rather talkative compared to the
strange visitor she ensnares. Yet, a
romantic relationship duly develops between them. Nonetheless, questions regarding the
sustainability and legitimacy of it all seem to nag at Harm’s subconscious.

Born
to play misfits, Amanda Plummer (who is currently appearing on the New York
stage in an excellent staging of Tennessee Williams’ eerie Two Character Play) suggests a lifetime of angst and insecurity
without revealing any of Harm’s secrets.
She stirs viewer empathy, but subtly suggests there is something damaged
and maybe a little bit off about her.

As
her visitor, Tetsuo Kuramochi expresses much without dialogue, but his
character still largely remains a cipher during the course of the film. However, Will Patton makes the most of his
brief appearance as Harm’s agitated visitor, giving the film its most
substantial jolt of energy, as well as performing the narration, which
elegantly evokes a sense of once-upon-a-time.

There
is no getting around the film’s deliberately paced artiness and its defiantly
unsatisfying third act. Nonetheless, it
remains one of the smartest urban fantasies of the year. It gracefully hints at cosmic goings on,
lurking in plain sight on the streets and subways we use every day (the Union
Square station, in this case), without cribbing the adolescent melodrama of the
Buffy and Twilight franchises. Adults
will find it a welcome antidote to Mortal
Instruments and similar copies of copies.

Although it is headed to a very different destination,
Abigail Harm would be an appropriate
companion film to John Sayles’ Secret of
Roan Inish. Strangely, it is also
thematically compatible with The Two
Character Play, a surreal two-hander about alienation and confinement. Recommended for those who appreciate more
demanding manifestations of the fantastic, Abigail
Harm opens this Friday (8/30) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Better Late Than Never: The Wolverine vs. the Yakuza

China
recently surpassed Japan to become the world’s second largest film market. Yes, China is number two with a bullet, but
Japan is hardly chopped liver. As an
extra added benefit, studios do not have to debase their product or sell their
souls to export films into Japan. Yet,
they seem to take perverse pleasure in kowtowing to Chinese Communist Party censors. However, the latest Japanese-centric
installment of the X-Men franchise
surely understood where its international bread would be buttered. Better than initial reviews gave it credit
for, James Mangold’s simply titled The
Wolverine (trailer
here) is
worth a look-see in theaters now.

As
most guys between the ages of thirteen and fifty know, Logan is a mutant, whose
uncanny healing powers were augmented with an adamantium skeleton and
retractable claws. You cannot kill him,
because he simply heals too fast, but you can definitely tick him off. At least that used to be the case. While visiting the deathbed of Yashida, the
Japanese industrialist who knew Logan during dark days past, his healing powers
are drastically impaired by Yashida’s strange physician, Dr. Green, who also
happens to be a rather nasty mutant known as Viper.

At
Yashida’s funeral, an attempt is made to kidnap Mariko Yashida, the
granddaughter and surprise heir to the Yashida empire. Suspecting the yakuza assassins are in league
with her somewhat disappointed father, Logan and Mariko go underground. However, the anti-hero mutant just isn’t
shrugging off shotgun blasts to the gut like he used. At least, he still has the claws and the
temper, which are considerable.
Nevertheless, he will need a bit of help from Yukio, a mutant orphan
adopted by the Yashida family to serve as Mariko’s friend and confidant.

Wolverine works surprisingly
well, because most of the time it is not operating as a superhero movie, but as
a blend of the yakuza and ninja genres.
No longer immortal, Logan follows the tradition of other noir gaijin
hard-noses, like Robert Ryan in Sam Fuller’s House of Bamboo. The claws
versus swords fight sequences are well staged and have real stakes. Unfortunately, the film makes a tactical
mistake in the third act, veering into Iron
Man territory not in keeping with up-close-and-personal hack-and-slashing
tone it had so nicely established.

Regardless,
The Wolverine has a real
ace-in-the-hole in the person of supermodel turned thesp Rila Fukushima. As the trusted Yukio, she shows gobs of
screen presence and wicked action chops.
Frankly, many fans will want to see her and Logan walk the earth
together, “like Caine in Kung Fu,”
but the franchise seems to have different plans for the future (judging from
the stinger-tease).

Tao
Okamoto (another model) is also quite engaging as the dutiful Mariko, but
probably Royal Shakespeare Company and Lost
alumnus Hiroyuki Sanda is the most recognizable face after Hugh Jackman,
bringing Shakespearean heaviness to the homicidal father, Shingen Yashida. Although clearly comfortable with the
character by now, Jackman admirably digs into this grittier detour into
mortality. On the other hand, Will Yun
Lee (so good in Witchblade and the
cool b-movie Four Assassins) is
woefully under-utilized as ninja-protector Kenuichio Harada, while Svetlana
Khodchenkova’s Viper is a bland standard issue super-villainess.

Just like leaving New York for Match Point helped reinvigorate Woody
Allen, the Japanese setting ought to jump start the Wolverine sub-series. It
should also herald Rila Fukushima’s arrival as an international action star. Had Mangold not been so tied to the big set
pieces-go-boom superhero climax, The
Wolverine could have really been an impressive fusion of Marvel mythology
and Asian martial arts and action movie aesthetics. Despite the late adherence to convention, it
is still consistently entertaining.
Recommended for Marvel and yakuza genre fans, The Wolverine is still playing in theater nationwide, including the
AMC Empire in New York.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Silk: It Goes Nicely with the Wigs

Rumpole
never went for Queens Council. He did
not need the letters QC after his name to take on the clients that interested
him. However, for mere mortal
barristers, it makes a world of difference for their careers. The barristers of Shoe Lane Chambers are
certainly human, at their best. The pursuit
of QC status and the silk robes that goes with it (hence the expression “taking
silk”) will weigh heavily on Shoe Lane’s two leading barristers in Silk (promo here), which premieres
on PBS’s Masterpiece Mysterythis
Sunday.

Even
Martha Costello’s name sounds trustworthy.
She really believes in all that “innocent until proven guilty” and “everyone
is entitled to the best defense possible” rhetoric. Clive Reader is a different story. He is the John Edwards of chambers. A smarmy charmer, his sexual escapes are
already the stuff of Shoe Lane legend.
Both are going for silk. A
glad-hander like Reader would seem to have the inside track, but at least
Costello has the advantage of being good at her job. Inconveniently, not everyone sees it that way
in the opening episode.

A
small shingle like Shoe Lane depends on referrals from big time solicitors,
like the ones representing a nasty piece of work named Gary Rush. The ex-con stands accused of robbing and
beating an aging war veteran. The trial
does not seem to be going well for Costello, which may have adverse silk
implications for her. She is also having
a hard time with the accused drug mule she is simultaneously representing. It seems Reader may have pulled a fast one on
behalf of his own client, the co-defendant.

Both
trials end on a rather ironic note, but there will be lasting repercussions
from the Rush case. Unfortunately, she made
a rather strong impression on the thug, to a degree that will eventually become
quite ominous. For the time being,
Costello will concentrate on more pressing matters, like her unplanned
pregnancy and defending an accused rapist.
It is not the sort of case she would like to take, but Shoe Lane’s
senior clerk Billy Lamb convinces her.

Viewers
will pick up quite a bit of British legal lingo, but might remain baffled by
the ins and outs of a system where private barristers can represent both the
accused and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Colleagues from the same firm can even find
themselves facing each other or representing co-defendants with conflicting interests. Somehow it seems to work, but maybe not
spectacularly well.

The
second episode (or the third and fourth cobbled together for American television)
introduce two more continuing side-plots.
This will be the first time Costello represents Mark Draper, a troubled
youth accused of “cottaging” in a public men’s room. Kate Brockman, Shoe Lane’s prosecution
specialist, also starts conspiring to oust Lamb. Not simply an employee, Lamb and his senior
clerk brethren clearly exert considerable power behind the scenes, sort of like
Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister.

In
the final episode[s], Costello and Reader will sit for their silk interviews,
their pupils will compete in a moot trial, and Draper will be back in court—this
time on a murder trial. Costello will
also face off against one of Shoe Lane’s dullest and dumbest in a rare CPS
appearance. Arguably, her conflicted prosecution
of Tony Paddick, a cyber-stalked teacher who finally snapped, is probably the
best storyline of the entire first season.
It certainly raises the most issues regarding the nature of law and justice. Frankly, Silk
feels rather out of place in Masterpiece
Mystery’s line-up. Like its
barrister characters, the show never shows any real interest in who actually
committed each crime, but only whether they get a sufficiently robust defense.

There
is also way too much time devoted to Reader’s grossly inappropriate (but still
sadly clichéd) relationship with his pupil, Niamh Cranitch. Indeed, so much personal angst clutters Silk, itfeels much more closely akin to L.A. Law than Perry Mason
or Rumpole of the Bailey. As a result, there is a real been-there-done-that
vibe to the show.

It
is worth noting Natalie Dormer of Game of
Thrones and the already announced third Hunger
Games movie co-stars as Cranitch, which may explain Masterpiece’s pick-up. She has
a screen presence, but her character acts far dumber than she sounds. Maxine Peake is perfectly likable as
Costello, but again her character could have been cribbed from Ally McBeel reruns. Likewise, Rupert Penry-Jones more or less
channels Corbin Bernsen’s Arnie Becker as Reader. The only principle to really distinguish Silk is Neil Stuke as the intriguingly Machiavellian
yet oddly paternalistic Lamb.

There is some decent courtroom drama in Silk as well as some passable
backstabbing intrigue, but it never really sings or dances for viewers. Despite some serviceable table-pounding, Silk does not make a compelling case for
itself. Just sort of whatever, it starts
its three week run tomorrow night (8/25) as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery on most PBS outlets
nationwide.

Friday, August 23, 2013

MWFF’13: Mai Ratima

They
live by night, but it is far from romantic.
They are the marginalized human debris that washes up on Seoul’s mean streets.
A runaway Thai mail order bride and a would-be street criminal will find
temporary solace in each others’ arms, but the brief moments of respite never
last in Yoo Ji-tae’s Mai Ratima (trailer here), which screens
tonight during the 2013 Montreal World Film Festival.

Mai
Ratima Tanawat has not enjoyed her time in Korea. Sponsored by her brother-in-law to marry his
mentally challenged brother and to work in his factory, she has not received wages
for the last six months. Of course, his
sexual harassment continues unabated.
Unable to send money home to her sister and Alzheimer’s-stricken mother,
Tanawat finally confronts her brutish brother-in-law, who quickly turns
violent.

Happening
by their altercation, aspiring thug Soo-young intercedes on her behalf. Assuming her bridges are burned, Tanawat
agrees to accompany him to Seoul, where he thinks he has an illicit deal in the
works. Unfortunately, Soo-young’s
prospects quickly turn sour. For a
while, they share some comparative domestic bliss squatting together, but it is
clearly not sustainable. There is never
the illusion a happily-ever-after might be possible for these two. The real question is how bad will it get?

Right,
so good times for everyone. Old Boy actor Yoo (who started cutting
his director’s teeth with shorts like Out of My Intention) really pulls out the stops guilt-tripping his country for
its exploitative immigration policies and intolerant attitudes. He blends street level grit with periodic
flights of stylized fantasy, which do not always mesh well.

However,
Park Ji-soo makes good on Yoo’s heart-and-mind changing program, almost
single-handedly. The Korean actress is
completely convincing as the Thai guest worker, from her tentative, soft-spoken
command of the language, to her heartrending fear and guilt. This ought to be a career-making star
turn. Bae Soo-bin does not quite pull
off Soo-young big, climatic emotional payoff, but he develops some touching
chemistry with Park in their quiet scenes together. While her subplot often feels like it was
lifted from another film, television star So Yoo-jin still scorches up the
screen as Young-jin, the manipulative party girl who recruits Soo-young for a
sordid boy-toy club gig.

Essentially, Yoo’s mistake comes when he divides
his two leads midway through the film.
As good as So Yoo-jin might be in a colorful supporting role, the time
spent away from Park Ji-soo’s title character just cannot compete with her poignancy
and sense of urgency. It is worth seeing
Mai Ratima solely for her work. Recommended for those who with a taste for
naturalistic cinema with a blistering point of view, Mai Ratima screens tonight (8/23), tomorrow (8/24), and Sunday
(8/25) as part of the 2013 World Film Festival in Montreal.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Una Noche: Cuba, Unvarnished

There
are two Cuba’s: one for well-heeled Euro tourists, and one for Cubans. When the two worlds mix, it often means
trouble for the locals. One Cuban teen understands
that only too well. Indeed, he has all
kinds of reasons to flee the police state on a ramshackle raft and a hurried
prayer. Shot on location in Cuba, yet
somehow still reflecting the country’s tragic real life circumstances, Lucy
Mulloy’s Una Noche (trailer here) will transport audiences
to the island dictatorship when it opens tomorrow in New York.

Raul
is more or less a delinquent, but it is hard to judge him harshly once you know
his backstory. After years of servicing
the tourist trade, his aging prostitute mother has contracted AIDS. Despite all that great free healthcare, Raul
is still forced to buy her medicine on the black market. Always skirting the law, he has finally
attracted serious police attention. He
and his mate Elio had planned to try their luck with the Florida Straights in
due time, but Raul’s wanted status compels him to move up the timetable.

It
will be hard for them both to leave Lila.
Elio has always had an unusually close and supportive relationship with
his younger sister. In contrast, Raul
hardly knows her, but he has carried a torch for the Tae Kwon Do student from
afar. Nevertheless, they are prepared to
depart by themselves, until the intuitive teen crashes their party.

Una Noche could be
considered a case of life imitating art imitating life. The narrative was inspired by the story of a
harrowing attempted crossing that would be spoilery to relate in detail. Subsequently, two of Mulloy’s three diamond-in-the-rough
principles eventually defected to the America while en route to participate in Una Noche’s Tribeca press junket. It is not hard to see why from Mulloy’s
documentary-like street scenes.

It
is not just the generally decrepit and unsanitary conditions of life outside
the tourist enclaves that is so oppressive in Una Noche. Mulloy captures
the secret police at work, conveying all the fear and anxiety they
generate. When asked at a special
screening why the Cuban government would allow permits for such an honest and unflattering
production, she speculated they were perversely pleased with the tragic ending,
seeing it as a tool to promote submission to state authority. It is hard to argue with her line of
reasoning, especially given the extent of her first hand experience.

Mulloy,
a legitimately independent filmmaker, guides her earnest young cast through
some first rate performances. Perhaps
Dariel Arechaga (the one who showed up on time at Tribeca) makes the strongest,
edgiest impression as Raul, the nervy live wire. Although it is a more tightly controlled
performance, Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre is not far behind him as the slow
burning Lila. Convincingly repressed,
Javier Núñez Florián’s Elio is perfectly solid in the more subservient, less
showy role of the trio.

Do
not be put off by the “Spike Lee Presents” business. Mulloy admirably holds up a mirror the
reality of Cuba today. Unfortunately,
she risks undermining the film with some creepy sexual matter that might come across
like overkill to some viewers, whereas others might consider it a strange
attempt to fetishize the characters’ desperate poverty. As a result, Una Noche can only be recommended for mature adults. However, those who can handle an occasional bit
of grossness should definitely check it out.
Intense and forthright, Una Noche opens
tomorrow (8/23) in New York at the IFC Center.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster

Ip
Man has become a transcendent hero. All
the films and stories about him are true, even when they contradict each other,
because we need his example of heroic humility.
Ip was a master of the southern style of kung fu known as Wing
Chun. Settling in Hong Kong after the Communist
takeover, he became the city’s most prominent martial arts teacher. He often lived a hand-to-mouth existence, but
he attained a measure of immortality through his celebrated student, Bruce
Lee. Posterity will not be so kind to
the northern school, for classically tragic reasons revealed in The Grandmaster (trailer here), Wong Kar Wai’s
eagerly anticipated take on Ip Man, the man and the legend, which opens this
Friday in New York.

Born
to a life of privilege, Ip Man has become the leading proponent of the Wing
Chun school of kung fu. For Grandmaster
Gong Baosen of the northern 64 Hands school, Ip is a fitting sparring partner for
his grand retirement tour. In observance
of custom, challenges are made and met with grace. However, Gong’s intensely loyal daughter Gong
Er is determined to take matters further.
When she and Ip spar, it makes a profound impression on them both. No longer mere rivals, an ambiguous but
palpable mutual attraction develops between them. Ip plans to travel north to see Gong and her
64 Hands style again, but the Japanese invasion rudely intervenes.

The
occupation years will be difficult for both non-lovers. Ip and his wife Zhang Yongcheng will mourn
their children who succumb to starvation, while Gong Er watches in horror as Ma
San, her father’s last great pupil-turned Japanse collaborator, usurps the 64
Hands. Years later, Ip Man and Gong Er
will meet again in Hong Kong, but their wartime decisions will continue to keep
them apart.

Considering
how long fans have waited, it is almost impossible for Grandmaster to live up to expectations, but happily it comes pretty
close. Although separate and distinct
from the Ip Man franchise distributed by Well Go USA, “Little” Tony Leung Chiu
Wai has the perfect look and gravitas for the celebrated master, nicely finding
his niche as the experienced leading man Ip Man, in between Donnie Yen’s young,
confident Ip and Anthony Wong’s elder statesman Ip. Pushed and prodded by Wong, Leung arguably does
some of his best martial arts work yet, but he also conveys the essence of the
acutely disciplined Ip.

As
good as Leung is, Ziyi Zhang more or less takes over the picture and that’s
totally cool. She even gets the big pivotal
fight scene, which delivers in spades. A haunting and seductive presence, she
brings out genuinely Shakespearean dimensions in Gong.

As
a martial arts film, Grandmaster offers
plenty of show-stopping sequences, clearly and fluidly staged with only a hint
of the extreme stylization that marked Wong’s Ashes of Time Redux.
Surprisingly though, the film is as much a lyrical epic of love and
yearning. Indeed, the snowy northern
climes and train station settings call to mind Doctor Zhivago more than Enter
the Dragon. Of course, Wong fully
understands the power of a passing glance and incidental touch, exquisitely conveying
the perverse satisfaction of denial.

The
Grandmaster is
a very good film that should please genre fans and art house audiences in equal
measure. It is probably the Ziyi Zhang,
Tony Leung, and Wong Kar Wai collaboration we have hoped for since 2046. A sensitive but muscular portrait
of Bruce Lee’s great master, it is a worthy addition to the Ip Man canon. Highly recommended, The Grandmaster opens this Friday (8/23) in New York at the
Angelika Film Center and the AMC Empire.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Floating Island: From the Harbor to the Boardroom

Bo
Wah Chuen’s chronicle is somewhat like the flipside of a James Clavell
novel. The adopted son of “Tanka” boat
people, Bo would become the first Chinese Taipan of the British Imperial East
India Company—sort of. Issues of
identity will hound the Horatio Alger character throughout Yim Ho’s “based on a
true story” Floating City(trailer here), which releases
on DVD and BluRay today from Well Go USA.

Images
of Hong Kong’s hardscrabble harbor community have become iconic, but they always
represented the bottom rung of the Crown Colony’s social ladder. As a mixed race baby adopted by a Tanka
family, Bo was the lowest of the low.
His mother was ethnic Chinese.
His father was not. At the time,
Bo’s adoptive parents projected the need for another son to work with his
father. However, his parents proved to
be more fertile than the early 1960’s economy.
As a result, several of Bo’s younger siblings are sent to a Christian
orphanage while the family struggles to right itself.

Bo’s
path to success will not be a straight uphill climb. He will drop out of elementary school several
times, when already a young man of working age.
His fortunes will turn when the East India Company hires him as an office
boy. Yet, even then it will take years
for his virtue to be rewarded, as he labors under Dick Callahan, a ridiculously
caricatured lout, who oozes racism from every sweaty pore. Nonetheless, Bo will eventually catch the eye
of the last British Taipan and earn the confidence of Fion Hwang, a
mover-and-shaker who will tutor him in the particulars of Hong Kong power
politics. It all leads to feelings of
increasing inadequacy for his shy Tanka wife Tai, especially the part about the
glamorous Hwang.

As
the future Taipan, Aaron Kwok does not look the least little bit British, let
alone a full half, despite the bizarre red tinting applied to his hair. Regardless, this just might be the role of
career. Frankly, many who closely follow
Asian cinema might be surprised the Cantopop star had it in him. Even though he is stuck rhetorically asking “who
am I?” far too often, he gives a slow burning, fully dimensional performance as
the driven outsider of outsiders. Kwok
and Yim walk quite the fine line, never allowing Bo to sellout his
self-respect, yet maintaining a distinctly flexible approach to his corporate
superiors.

Beyond
Kwok, Floating’s ensemble is a mixed
bag, leaning more towards the positive side of the ledger. Both Josie Ho and Nina Paw are quite touching
as Bo’s younger and older adoptive mother, respectively. Annie Liu is also a smart, luminous presence
as Hwang, but you have to wonder what kind of expat dive bar they go to in
order to recruit western actors like this.
Egads, can’t any of them pull off a simple line reading?

Over
the course of the film, Floating anti-British
biases get a bit tiresome, but its treatment of Christianity is considerably
more nuanced. In fact, Yim and co-writer
Marco Pong clearly suggest it greatly contributes to the perseverance of Bo’s
sainted mother.

Ultimately, comparisons to Clavell are rather apt,
considering Floating’s large cast of
characters and decades-spanning narrative.
It has its flaws, but Kwok is a far more memorable Taipan than Bryan
Brown or Pierce Brosnan (at least the former had Joan Chen’s support). Many cineastes will forgive the clunky bits,
taking satisfaction from HK New Wave veteran Yim’s return to ambitious, large
scale filmmaking. Worth checking out as
a rags-to-riches tale with considerable local color, Floating City is now available for home viewing options from Well
Go USA.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Savannah: The Sort of True Tall Tale of Ward Allen

Ward
Allen was like a grown-up version of Huck Finn.
The heir to one of Savannah’s largest plantations, Allen willingly
renounced a life of privilege for a wild and woolly existence supplying fresh
game to the city’s markets. Unfortunately,
the march of progress will not heed the angry editorials penned by the “Buffalo
Bill of the River” in Annette Haywood-Carter’s Savannah (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.

The
Oxford educated Allen had a talent for blasting duck out of the sky. Christmas Moultrie was a close second. Savannah’s last child born into bondage,
Moultrie had a long history with Allen’s family that evolved into a close camaraderie
with Ward. While this rather puzzles
some of Allen’s would-be peers, his open defiance of modern game regulations often
leads to more pressing problems with the law.
Despite his roguish carousing, Allen catches the eye of Lucy Stubbs, the
headstrong daughter of Savannah’s least amused old money family.

Sadly,
Allen was not cut out for the modern world, as viewers can easily deduce from
the flashback structure. Still, he left
behind some colorful stories that Moultrie never tires of retelling in his
twilight years. In fact, those anecdotes
formed the basis of John “Jack” Eugene Cay Jr.’s Ward Allen: Savannah River Market Hunter, the historical monograph
on which Savannah is partly based. Initially the Cay Family’s guide on river
excursions, Moultrie forged a close relationship with the Cays that led to Savannah the film, co-produced and
financed by Cay’s son, John.

Considering
both Cays appear as characters in the wrap-around segments, it will be tempting
for critics to dismiss Savannah as a
vanity adaptation of a vanity publication, but there is more to it than
that. Frankly, it is an intriguing example
of how tall tales and legends are passed down and codified in the digital
age. The relationship between Moultrie
and both Allen and the Cays is also quite touching. The near total lack of racial tension, aside from a
flashback to Moultrie’s childhood, is obviously difficult to buy, but Savannah’s apolitical stance is frankly
rather refreshing.

It
is also easy to understand why Haywood-Carter was attracted to Allen as a
historical and dramatic character. Temperamentally
too much of an anarchist to be considered a Southern Agrarian, Allen’s advocacy
of a more natural, less mechanized lifestyle may well resonate with contemporary
audiences (who do their hunting and gathering at Whole Foods).

Jim
Caviezel is surprisingly charismatic as the reckless, larger than life
Allen. A bit of a departure for the Person of Interest star, he clearly
seems to enjoy Allen’s boozing and bombastic Shakespeare quoting. Hal Holbrooke also appears to be having a
ball as Judge Harden, the acerbic jurist who passed the bar and was appointed
to the bench only spend most of his career trying Allen for hunting season
violations.

Evidently,
the circumstances surrounding Allen’s marriage are the best sourced elements of
the film, but they are also the dullest.
Nevertheless, Jaimie Alexander plays her with some welcome attitude and
backbone. However, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s
Moultrie mostly just stands about, looking vaguely pained by Allen’s
self-destructive behavior. On the other
hand, he contributes the eerie blues rendition of “Wade in the Water” heard over
the final credits.

The
American south is often shortchanged by Hollywood films that too often reduce
the cultural fertile region to a burning cross.
The reality was much more complicated than that. At least Haywood-Carter and her
co-screenwriter Kenneth F. Carter take a stab at a more balanced portrayal, but
the results are certainly mixed. Mainly
recommended for those looking for the PBS Masterpiece
Classic version of History Channel’s swamp people reality programming, Savannah opens this Friday (8/23) in New
York at the AMC Empire, as well as theaters throughout the southeast.

Claude Miller’s Therese

Thérèse
Desqueyroux is not much of a home-maker.
She has servants for that sort of thing.
She is hardly mother of the year either.
She keeps up appearances as a dutiful wife, but she has no love and
little respect for her husband. Yet,
embracing the woman of privilege as a feminist icon or a victim of bourgeoisie society
is a tricky business. The infamous
protagonist of François Mauriac’s most celebrated novel will confound audiences
again in the late Claude Miller’s final film, Thérèse (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.

At
first, the marriage of Thérèse Larroque and Bernard Desqueyroux makes perfect sense,
because of their pines. It is a way to
combine the wooded estates of the two land-holding families. Despite his wealth, her father is something
of a leftwinger, which may have contributed to her contrary nature. You will not find any of that in the rigidly
conventional Desqueyroux family. Alas,
Bernard is a better hunter than a husband, but his newlywed wife seems even
less interested in their domestic life together.

It
turns out Thérèse’s childhood best friend and now sister-in-law has a more
idealistic and melodramatic approach to love.
She has fallen for Jean Azevedo, the son of a wealthy local Jewish merchant. Obviously, he is quite unacceptable to a
family concerned about upholding their social standing. It falls to the new Madame Desqueyroux to
deal with this unwanted to suitor, who turns out to be considerably less
serious about her sister-in-law than she is about him. However, he awakens yearnings in Thérèse that
only intensify her resentment of her uncouth husband.

A
former protégé of Truffaut, Miller was a master of cinematic ambiguity and
Thérèse Desqueyroux is a fitting character to grace his cinematic au
revoir. When she attempts to murder
Bernard by manipulating his prescribed arsenic drops, her motivations are not
entirely clear. More boorish than brutish
in Miller’s adaptation, he is no longer the abusive savage of Mauriac’s novel,
but a rather sympathetic fool. Clearly,
the constraints of polite society rankle Mme. Desqueyroux, but they will remain
regardless of her husband’s fate. We
have a clear sense the imp of perverse initially spurred her rash behavior, yet
she continues her course of action in a coldly calculated manner.

Audrey
Tautou’s icy detachment perfectly suits this Desqueyroux. She is a tragic enigma, jealously guarding
her conflicting thoughts and emotions from everyone around her. In a bizarre case of dramatic jujitsu, Gilles
Lellouche nearly steals the picture as Bernard Desqueyroux, who does his duty
and keeps a stiff upper lip, because that is what gentlemen do. His final scenes with Tautou have a finely
wrought air of melancholy that come to define the film overall.

Perhaps Mauriac might have taken issue with
Miller’s choices, but his Thérèse is
a very good film. It might appear to be
a conventional period piece on the surface (especially without the original
flashback structure), but its razor sharp portrayal of the dark complexities of
human nature distinguishes it from the field.
Recommended for fans of French cinema and literary adaptations, Thérèse opens this Friday (8/23) in New
York at the Angelika Film Center.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Cine-Simenon: The Last Train

Women,
children, and the well-to-do sit up front.
Prostitutes, ruffians, and the socially marginalized hunker down in the
cattle cars bringing up the rear. Of
course, they were Georges Simenon’s kind of people and they turn out to be more
fun to travel with in Pierre Granier-Deferre’s The Last Train, an adaptation of Simenon’s tragic romance set amid WWII
evacuation chaos, which screens during the Anthology Film Archives’ Cine-Simenonretrospective.

Julien
Maroyeur is a shy radio repairman in a sleepy French village on the Belgian
border. His out-of-his-league wife is probably the only notable thing about
him. Given her very pregnant state, they are reluctant to leave home, but news
of the advancing German army convinces them.
The nuns find a place for Madame Maroyeur and their young daughter in a
respectable compartment, but he will be stuck in the back of the train. However, along with the dregs of society, he
will share his car with the mysterious Anna.

Initially,
the beautiful woman says very little.
The knuckleheads seem to think her accent sounds German, but she seems
more anxious than anyone to avoid the National Socialists. Effectively segregated from his family,
Maroyeur takes a protective interest in the woman that quickly evolves into
something far deeper.

Considering
Simenon’s controversial wartime years, The
Train is a bit of an oddity in his oeuvre.
Nonetheless, it is wholly fitting Granier-Deferre, the Simenon
specialist, would be represented in Cine-Simenon. Incorporating archival WWII newsreel footage
into the film, he keeps viewers fully cognizant of the wider geopolitical
horrors throughout what is admittedly at times a rather melodramatic story.

Indeed,
Granier-Deferre vividly captures the strange nature of the flight. With everyone losing sight of previous responsibilities,
it becomes almost a madcap vacation, punctuated by moments of abject
terror. Tellingly Maroyeur himself
admits they have all “lost perspective.”

Last Train might have an
odd tonal shift here or there, but it is hard to go too far wrong with
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Romy Schneider as the not-so secret lovers. Their chemistry is quite convincing, because
it is clearly rooted in their respective characters’ personalities. The quiet moments shared by the screen
legends have affectionate warmth beyond mere erotic heat.

Much like Man on the Eiffel Tower, there are some less than optimal dubbed prints of Last Train in circulation, so it is
worth noting AFA will screen it in its original French with English subtitles. Despite the often jarring editing, it is a
good, solid film, offering a unique perspective on the French civilian war experience. Anchored by the haunting Schneider, The Last Train is recommended for French
film connoisseurs when it screens this Tuesday (8/20) and Wednesday (8/21) at
Anthology Film Archives.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

The Lady Vanishes: Miss Froy Disappears Again

Although
not widely read today, Welsh mystery novelist Ethel Lina White’s work was
adapted for the screen by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Alfred
Hitchcock. While the great American detective
writer just did a punch-up job on the adaptation of Her Heart in Her Throat that would become The Unseen, Hitchcock inherited a troubled production and turned it
into one of the defining films of his pre-Hollywood career. For some reason, every forty years or so
someone decides to remake The Lady
Vanishes. The latest premieres on
PBS this Sunday night as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery(promo here).

Iris
Carr is young, rich, hedonistic, and unencumbered by any family ties. She and her vapid friends are partying their
way through the Balkans, because that seems to be the place to be in the 1930’s. After a jealous spat, she decides to return
to London rather than continue to her pack’s next destination. It will be a hectic journey.

Bribing
her way onto the train after her reservation is suspiciously lost, Carr either
succumbs to sunstroke or is knocked unconscious. Coming to in time to make her express, the
woozy Carr is less than thrilled by her compartment companions. The sour-faced Baroness and her entourage are
not exactly welcoming either. However,
the kindly Miss Froy, a governess employed by one of the Baroness’s relatives,
takes Carr under her wing. Of course, as
viewers surely expect, when the drowsy Carr awakes, Miss Froy is nowhere to be
found and nobody will admit to having seen her.

More
faithful to the original source novel than the Hitchcock classic, Fiona Seres’
screen adaptation has no Caldicott, Chambers, or any talk of cricket
whatsoever. Max Hare, the earnest
engineer-surrogate for Michael Redgrave will not be much help either. Carr is more or less on her own, as the
Baroness and her co-conspirators try to “gaslight” the “hysterical” woman into
silence. Unfortunately, Hare and his professor-mentor
have the intuition of burnt toast, never picking up on the malevolent glares,
pregnant pauses, and conspicuous lies coming from the villainous looking
villains.

Tuppence
Middleton is a bit bland, but she comes unhinged rather impressively. Sadly, Tom Hughes is a weak, plodding
presence as Hare, comparing poorly with not just Redgrave, but Elliott Gould in
the questionably conceived 1979 remake.
However, the supporting cast is quite strong. Former Bond villain Jesper Christensen is
quite entertaining chewing the scenery as the sly doctor, while Pip Torrens brings
humane depth to the tele-film as the Reverend Kenneth Barnes, one of television’s
rare positive portrayals of a clergyman.
(The retro opening credits are also surprising cool.)

Director Diarmuid Lawrence makes the most of the
claustrophobic setting, but rushes through the climatic turning point as if his
cast were late for their connecting trains.
Obviously it is wildly unfair to compare this The Lady Vanishes to Hitchcock’s early masterwork, but it just does
not have the same verve as Masterpiece’s first-class
reboot of The 39 Steps. Reasonably diverting for a Sunday evening
unwind, The Lady Vanishes airs
tomorrow night (8/18) on most PBS outlets nationwide.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Blue Exorcist: the Movie

True
Cross Academy is sort of like Hogwarts, but with guns. That is definitely an improvement. While some of the senior exorcists wield
ancient magical weapons, an automatic still has its uses against rampaging
demons. Young exorcist-in-training Rin
Okumura will face a rather different sort of supernatural troublemaker as well
as the traditional city-leveling variety in Atsushi Takahashi’s Blue Exorcist: the Movie (trailer here), which screens
this Saturday and Sunday at select cities nationwide.

Marvel
fans who remember Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, will be able to relate to
Okumura. They both have the same father, but have renounced his infernal ways.
As fans of Kazue Katō’s manga and the subsequent anime series already know,
Okumura and his brother Yukio are the half-human half-demonic offspring of Old
Scratch. However, only Rin inherited the
old man’s powers (and some of his features).
Rin enrolls in True Cross to become an exorcist in order to avenge Father
Shiro Fujimoto, the kindly priest who raised the two boys. Much to his surprise, he found Yukio had a
head start on him. Already a full-fledged
exorcist, his brother even teaches courses at the elite exorcist school.

Taking
place sometime in between episodes, the staff of the academy is gearing up for
the eagerly anticipated festival their town celebrates every eleven years. This fateful night, Yukio Okumura will be
leading an operation to exorcise a haunted train traveling between our world,
Assiah, and Gehenna, the demon plane. It
does not go according to plan. As a
result, a lot of oozing monsters start lumbering through the city—and it is mostly
Rin’s fault. Suspended from exorcisms,
the teen with a tail is forced to babysit Usamaro, an impish demon who
resembles a young boy. When Okumura and
the young scamp start to bond, it leads to all kinds of complications.

Although
the manga and anime series are known for their religious symbolism, the movie
downplays the allegorical for the sake of narrative compactness and Usamaro’s
comic relief. Frankly, it gives us more
than enough of the latter. Still, the
stand alone feature quickly brings new viewers up to speed on its well
developed fantasy world and offers some entertaining supernatural mayhem. The background cityscapes are unusually lush
and detailed, while the big festival looks like an awful lot of fun.

When
Blue Exorcist gets down to action, it
nicely blends elements of the kaiju and martial arts genres. The scope and stakes of the film are rather
large, even if it does not advance the overall series mythology. The way it incorporates an old children’s
book into the narrative is also quite clever and visually stylish. In fact, the whole film looks quite
impressive. There is just a little too
much demon cuteness and the self-contained resolution is somewhat unsatisfying for
reasons that would be spoilery to explain.

Those familiar with the series might be
disappointed to hear there is no service involving Shura Kirigakure, aside from
her regular wardrobe. At least she gets
a fair amount of screen time fighting. The
fans it is intended for should enjoy this new adventure, while receptive new
folks ought to find the world-building detail intriguing. Recommended for older teens who dig manga and
anime, Blue Exorcist: the Movie screens
tomorrow (8/17) and Sunday (8/18) in New York at the Big Cinema Manhattan and
in San Francisco at the 4 Star Theatre.

J.B. Spins

About Me

J.B. (Joe Bendel) works in the book publishing industry, and also teaches jazz survey courses at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He has written jazz articles for publications which would be appalled by his political affiliation. He also coordinated instrument donations for displaced musicians on a volunteer basis for the Jazz Foundation of America during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Send e-mail to: jb.feedback "at" yahoo "dot" com.